General Butt Naked

Joshua Milton Blahyi (born 30 September 1971), better known by his nom de guerre General Butt Naked, is a Liberian preacher and philanthropist best known for being a warlord during the First Liberian Civil War. Born in Monrovia into a Krahn family, Blahyi claims that at the age of seven he was inducted as a high priest into a secret society and participated in child sacrifices along with assisting the regime of President Samuel Doe. Such claims have been disputed by Blahyi's relatives, who instead claim he dropped out of school after the third grade and worked at a local market in Monrovia before turning to crime. In 1989, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) sparked the civil war when they invaded Liberia to topple Doe, who was murdered in 1990. In c. 1993, Blahyi joined the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), which had been formed in 1991 and fought against the NPFL. He raised his own militia of mostly child fighters known as the "Naked Base Commandos", and became known for going into combat wearing no clothing, which led to him adopting his nom de guerre. In c. 1994, ULIMO split into the rival ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J, and Blahyi backed the latter faction, resisting an attempt by the NPFL and ULIMO-K to arrest its leader Roosevelt Johnson in April 1996. Blahyi claimed to have experienced a vision of Jesus in July 1996 and abandoned his fighters, instead turning to street preaching. The war ended in 1997, and the NPFL's leader, Charles Taylor, was elected as president. Blahyi, who was subject to political persecution by Taylor's administration, fled to a refugee camp in Ghana in 1999. There, Blahyi learned to read and write and began delivering sermons, founding a ministry and rehabilitation programme. In January 2008,...